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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, October 3, 2002

HAVE A BLAST WITH OUR PAST
Hoop dreams die hard for relief pitcher Fetters

Learn about Hawai'i sports history and those who figured prominently in it in this feature. We'll ask a question Wednesday and present the answer in an in-depth profile on Thursday.

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Writer

Q: This former all-state high school basketball player became a major league pitcher. Can you name him, the high school he played for and his current major league team?

A: Mike Fetters, who pitches for the Arizona Diamondbacks, was the All-State Player of the Year who led Iolani to a state high school basketball title in 1983.

No sooner had the trivia question — "Which member of the Pittsburgh Pirates was a 1983 all-state high school basketball player in Hawai'i?" — appeared on the Jumbotron at PNC Park in May than the players began to look up and down the length of the dugout at each other.

Mike Fetters, a Pirates relief pitcher before his July trade to Arizona, was the only player on the Pittsburgh roster with known Hawai'i ties, but ...

"My teammates said, 'Nah, it couldn't be you,' " Fetters recalls.

Even when the answer was posted, some initially remained skeptical.

"I took a lot of grief," Fetters says.

Looking past his trademark mound scowl and picturing the 6-foot-4, 230-pound relief pitcher's first love as basketball takes some imagination this week as the Diamondbacks open the National League division series — unless you remember the 1983 state high school tournament.

Back then, Fetters was better known for what he did on the court than the mound in leading Iolani, the Interscholastic League of Honolulu runner-up, to the state championship.

To this day basketball remains close to his heart. "It is still my first love," Fetters said. "I'm a basketball fanatic. I shoot the ball at Dave & Busters and go to games when I'm home (in Arizona) in the off-season. I've coached (my kids') teams and I go watch the (Phoenix) Suns play."

In 1983, as an Iolani senior, "The thing about him was he did everything so well (in basketball). I'm surprised he was such a good baseball player," said Harry Pacarro, whose Farrington team lost to Iolani in the state semifinals. "He was the key to their win."

Major league pitcher Mike Fetters says basketball is his first love. "I'm a basketball fanatic. ... I've coached (my kids') teams and I go watch the Suns play."

Associated Press

Recalls Glenn Young, Iolani's coach at the time: "That was a very talented team — Frank Lutu, Keith Spencer, Scotty Laboy and Roland Ruff — but Michael was the most athletic. He was able to rebound, handle the ball, shoot, defend, so he was probably our most athletic and versatile."

Fetters, selected Player of the Year on The Advertiser's All-State Team, says, "That was a very athletic team; you had guys who went on to play college football and basketball."

Then, there was Fetters, who was a 22nd round draft choice of the Los Angeles Dodgers, but chose to accept a baseball scholarship to Pepperdine where he planned to walk on in basketball.

"He had an opportunity to play basketball ... that was the deal he had with the coaches," Young said. "But after a couple of days he called me back. He said, 'There's no way I can compete at this level in basketball.' He told me, 'Coach, they're in a different class.' "

Three years later, Fetters signed with the Angels and, in 1989, began a major league career that has taken him to seven teams over 14 seasons. Nine times, including the career-high 63 games this season, he's appeared in 40 or more games as a relief pitcher

But not until this week has he been to the postseason in the major leagues. And never, "not even in the minor leagues," has he won another championship of any kind.

"That's one of the things that still makes 1983 so special to me," Fetters said.